Energy from waste has key role to play in developing heat networks says DECC official

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Heat networks will need more supply from energy from waste plants if they are to succeed, according to a leading Department of Energy and Climate Change official.

Speaking at this week’s CIWM conference DECC head of heat strategy and policy David Wagstaff said that heat is the main user of energy in the UK with industry being responsible for much of this.

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But he said that there had not been much thinking or policy from Government on heat over the last few years, until the Government published its heat strategic framework last year, and update in March.

However, he warned that significant barriers remain for extracting the heat from energy from waste plants into heat networks with the geography of where they are located and the seasonal nature of demand for heat making this tricky.

He said that energy from waste plants could overcome these challenges and provide more heat into the networks to add to the 2,000 that exist at present providing 2 per cent of the nation’s heat.

“We want to see low carbon heat networks,” he said. “Therefore there will be a very important role for energy from waste.”

His presentation also revealed that DEE will be providing £10 million of new funding to give small grants to local authorities that wish to explore the feasibility of new heat networks.

Any networks that were to come from these would need to come from private funding, he said.